[Music] participants no it's over on the screen sometimes it doesn't decipher muted okay so it's follow that's great have everybody it is and we are live can everybody here up yes Becky can you tell me who's in person just Susie all right I'll call the select board meeting to order at 5:34 up for the minute um and we can look at the agend agenda so um we have public comment at 5:35 followed by the select Board review of our select board minutes from uh February 27th then the select board will review the new concom regulation feys um last last uh day for select board to receive petitions and warant articles from the public then we have the select board to review the first R of refusal letter um discuss topics for scheduling an all boards meeting um 6:15 set up a set date for past update event with our LSP license slate professional um review first graft of the annual town meeting warrant Town Administrator updates and then our executive session has actually been cancelled for this evening and postponing to 23r 26 um does anyone have any additions they would like to add or adjustments r or no good thank you okay all right I will open it up for public comment does anyone on the screen have a public comment for or would like to share anything okay all right we'll move on to our minutes does anyone would do I hear a motion to approve the minutes so we can just askit move second um were there any hello um do we have any does anyone have any edits or clarification is there anything for minutes of the 27 I just said one on number two it says discussion topic say barell makes a motion to approve Letter to Amy na who is Amy na she was the representative of the Attorney General sorry attorney and the should we just put that in there Attorney General's office attorney y okay that was well I was pretty sure that's what it was yes confirming anybody have no they look great okay um all those in favor ofing Carl I stalk thank you um moving on to I don't see that yet for the conom regulations but we are running ahead um and we ran over so she was kind of P oh she was leaving here yeah yeah okay is there anything we can move on yes what would you um the WR firstus yes that short so um we were we received a request from a lawyer for this um right of first refusal and upon research our head assessor has determined that the shry assessor's office records indicate that the town of HB no longer has the right of first refusal on the Conway par ww16 uh located at 18 January Hills Road as describ an attorney Bartley's February 20th 2024 letter there are no rollback taxes things had been processed back in 2019 um the attorney was um did not assume that because the Le was still on the property but they are moving ahead as a result of going through this process that's taking care of that that's easy right a couple easy ones agenda tonight all right is there something else you move up um how about this topic or this scheduling or all board meting that probably will be pretty easy um that's part of we haven't done an old bo not the first question would be how would we handle it would we handle it as in person and what was the I'm trying to remember the timing and didn't we typically do it in the fall yes so is that what we're thinking is that we would do because we have annual town meeting com up so just that so that would leave if um that would leave potentially maybe doing one in June or in September I think it came up in response to Michael dear's question about what the town's position is on going to all Zoom 100% Zoom oh right or but and or piing its hybrid or moving towards inperson meetings and when this question came up um I asked Grace about it and she said he gets a lot of comments from committee members and different chairs all the time people's opinions on this issue are all over the board and as we talked about it we was thinking you know an all boards meeting is the format to really get a good a good sense of what everyone's thinking yeah I think that would be that makes a that makes a lot of sense and and June is probably a good time to do it I think I think if if because if we're gonna decide on something as important as how meetings are right we should probably have it sooner than later because it might I think we have a year before the legislation it comes back up but I think getting our feedback to leg if we develop a consens and the rules be absolute that prevent from doing so that might be a good idea and then um people can if they haven't seen this setup and set up so they can view it and also I think we could talk about how well this is working I mean people sort of say that some times the the sound isn't great how is the sound tonight is it Geneva are you able to hear well you sound yep you sound great as long as people do not talk at the same time but I will say that when you have people in town hall with you and they're talking in the background you cannot hear them on this end not clearly enough okay so that's also something good to know that's there's a in the speaker where we can down do background noise so we can play around with that too to find out the right setting for larger noises so I I think um doing a I mean we already have maybe like a couple of topics about the hybrid in person meetings um and just technology in general would be would be good to talk about um and I think having all of the boards and committees kind of reporting in as where they are I know certainly from the community reservation committee it would be good opportunity for us again to talk about CPA funds we ended up with no projects for this year um and and I had thought J this property down on January Hill Road be really possibly a really good opportunity for um open space acquisition and possibly some affordable housing too so that's kind of unfortunate that that didn't work out but you know I know CPC would like to give kind of a a short presentation um CPA and how to use um so and I think if we then survey all the um departments and committees it would be we got some so we put an agenda together based on what we hear from and that's maybe if not all members are come MERS come that their chair or someone else um they talk at their meeting about how they feel hybrid you know we'll ask some questions yeah we give them some warnings they talk about right right we could say that that's that that's a topic that we want to address as the meeting and then are there other things that they would like to to talk about so what do what do you think like the middle of June or we kind of just have a tentative maybe a week when we don't have a select Bo meeting I have um elect calendar so June is there's a there's a holiday okay um the we there's the week of the 10th that doesn't have a select board and then last week of jeene doesn't have a select we do the week of the 10th with be great okay then we're otherwise we're getting into 10 so like June 10 um June 10 um all right so would you do the 11th on that Tuesday then yeah that sounds great we can talk more about food or especially the format we had done of them was we did our meeting part and then after we had a little bit of a for for people actually talk to each other yeah that'd be great and see each other yeah long over what time 530 5:30 I know we get feedback from the general public that s is hard for people to make who work about 5:30 or yeah yeah why don't we say people have a prer okay or maybe we could have a short select board meeting at 5:30 bring the meeting at 6 yeah and Beth has been here for a few yeah hi Beth Hey Beth we were running a little we were running a little ahead we um put a couple of them on and going to attempt to here um we we received the concom proposed fees that you would send us I'm going to pop it up on the screen so that everyone can see it and if you want to walk through it unless you want to share your screen and walk through it if you have it right there um why don't you share your screen but and then but I can walk people through it but that' be great I'm using two screens so I have to make sure I pick the correct one I picked the wrong one hang on because now you we can't see it in the room so I have to undo this put it onto this then I have to go to the zoom share number two here everybody's going to see themselves from moment okay can you all see that I'm going to move you guys over okay all right I'm going to increase this so we can see it in the room all right can everybody see thatting here I can yeah I can see good all right be you want to take us through um what you're proposing and and what you're um what the background is for choosing these particular PE sure um so what we have here there's current um fees which is so under our bylaw that's still active right now um and then we've got the proposed fees for shsy which is what is in the regulations that were approved by the Conservation Commission a bit ago um and then I just have a list of and actually you know this table actually Miriam had put this together mostly I added some some stuff to it and organized it and I think she originally took it from something I had done in amers too at one point but it's just comparing to fees that other conservation commissions um some nearby towns and then some towns that end up getting a little bit further away from shsy but um just quickly so the the current fees all we have right now in our bylaw is the $25 fee for either an RDA or a notice of intent um that has to do with any work that's basically um not U single family home type development and is also um less than 5,000 square foot type project so that's $25 and then we have $50 for a single um family dwelling um basically I think it's really meant to be for when you're if if it's a new house um and then and then you add an extra $50 every time uh you're adding another dwelling so if it's like a multi a multi-home um development you'd add an extra $50 so that's all we have right now we have no other fees I guess we do have a $25 fee for for permit extensions um those are the only fees right now and we're proposing um we have this new small projects provision in our new regulation a new project category um and that's $25 and then the regular RDA would be $75 with an extra5 um for every acre so $75 I think for the first five acre any five up to five acre project if it's more than that it's $5 every additional acre um nois these are based on the noi categories which I I'm not going to torture you by going through the categories but the state under the wetlands protection act has all different types of projects divided into categories um and they charge the state charges by category so each category has a different um fee associated with it basically based on complexity um and so these are sort of the same so the the category one $100 category two $100 um so that's what that's what that is and I I could you know provide you guys the list of categories if you're interested and what projects fall under those that's a significant amount get to 500 what categories are those which the $500 the four and five yeah yeah so those get into like um residential developments so large scale construction projects um I think a single family home is 100 that's category two um so yeah those the higher prices are for the larger developments or for if you're doing if you're um like a subdivision a subdivision B is it it's multiple single family hom for example or multif family development right a subdivision would be in the four or500 dollar categories um and then some other projects that may impact Wetlands heavily um if you're doing D work on dams um things like that um those can get in I can I can send you guys the definitions of those different categories for the nois be can I ask you a question just um since you mentioned it um so for example with the um noi so there's a local filing and then there's also a filing with d said okay and so are people paying two fees are they paying a local fee and a fee to be so it be double yep right you'd be paying you'd be paying the state fee and you'd be paying the local fee and what's the justification for you know people are already paying D what's the justification for us charging this month money what are what are these what are the fees used for by the conservation yeah I think in in general so all the fees not just noi but all all of the fees um the ideas that all towns chargeing for a lot of it is just for administration so everything having to do with um you know mailing out permits and stuff and um photocopying and paper and binders and so administration of the um Wetland protection act in general and then um and I'm not quite clear those Fe those fees don't go into the general do they there's a line item for the fees in the budget a line item um um there the money comes into a line item that is available for for them to spend it's for the conservation for the conservation to spend on notice of intent related work including employees it could be used we used to use it to offset you know when we had extra hours of work for the clerk those lot that could be used for the clerk okay so Department costs that involve um notice of Enchantment okay yeah I mean I guess and sort of simple costs would would be you know like the stuff that Carrie does and and we were just in the conference room just a little bit ago today and just you know there's a lot of organizing that she she's she could do and and things that she would need you know just binders photocopying and then we do a lot of mailing out of of permits um and that kind of thing but then also as Becky said for some extra hours for um car if she needs it um if we start sort of collecting some money and so then we actually start to get a little bit a pot of money you know there is the idea of maybe eventually working with other towns to share a conservation agent that might you know who knows which direction the concom is going to go in terms of how many applications they're going to get how if ever we end up in that thinking of that again this pot of money could go towards um towards that um we don't get any money for enforcement so if there's an enforcement situation and we need to hire a lawyer um this p money could be used for that too [Music] um you know I think anytime there's like third party review and stuff like that the applicant actually pays for third party reviews and that kind of thing so but there might be situations where we would need um you know need to hire a lawyer but it could only be used for a notice enant related issue that's true from that right so that the the fees how the fees are collected that's how they can be spent that are you saying that if it's a if it's a fee collected through for notice of intent it's actually kept yeah the notice of intent has a separate time okay meaning what even like the money that comes in say from a um extension which is a different column but it would still go into the same pom money but it can only really be used for for permitting purposes you know like not it can't be used the way I understand it is for improving like conservation lands you know like Trail maintenance and things like that because that's not permit related that's how I've always understood it um and then just looking at the table so we've just we've added fees for most of the documents that the Conservation Commission um has to issue so amended orders of conditions certificate of compliance and RADS um extension permit extensions um emergency certifications and then reissuing of the certificates of compliance or the order conditions um when you the question is um when you roll this out and you post it on your website so that people who are looking at doing projects see the fees that they may need um are you going to Define like under n what each category is and then anything that has more than one feed what that category that goes with the higher or lower feed would be yeah uh in fact this table isn't the exact table that's in the regulations it's it's a it's a bigger table that takes up a whole page um and it does have more description of what each of the fees what each of the fees are yeah Becky just actually showed it and on the nois it just says category one two and three but for the public I think be yeah we can we can we can add more of a description to each of the noi categories in that sheet less acronyms as well okay yeah um should be in append day it's in the it's in the regulations regulations in the um Beth can you talk about the enrad um just running through how like an example so it says $2 a linear foot not under yeah under1 yeah so with an anr you'd be you'd be paying a wetland scientist to to delineate the wetlands so that's why it's for linear foot um of wetlands and then I guess it's it can't be under $100 so the cheapest for an anr is is $100 um and then it's not not to go over $200 for a single family home not to go over 2,000 for anything other than that like um you know commercial which we so so many of these things don't really happen so much in shsb I mean when I think of other I would think the library might be one of the only I all the Solar projects too um so those larger delineations the total fee can't go over $2,000 if if you're basing it on $2 a linear foot and what's the policy with um Town Projects are they charged the fees actually no we have mun Municipal projects no fees as far as I as far as I know from my experience and is that in the regulations or is that stated anywhere good question I can look at our regulations I'm also wondering if it's sort of like a town policy because I'm assuming also you don't pay planning inspector doesn't charge nobody charges the planning board doesn't charge VBA doesn't charge hom has never charged okay um it's it's ongoing F okay maybe I I don't know yeah might be good to State it yeah I can see yeah I'll see if it's in our RS [Music] and yeah at some point when the RS are um I'm not sure if the RS have to be um revised at all based on the new bylaw but would be yeah they do yeah okay to just put in there put into the fee schedule very since these are pretty significant pleas yeah I guess to do folks see any real issues um I see I just had a question Beth um you you included tum who doesn't charge any fees is that that means or are they good question that is a good question um okay I can I don't know what what pelum does um again M Miriam first made this this chart but yeah it looks like they don't charge anything which could be the case that's why we're comparing to them that they don't charge anything so that would be an option yeah I do find interesting amers Bel good I I just find that interesting we comparing them yeah i' say we're like we're very similar to ammer except for our nois really well RDA we're charging 75 they're charging 50 um it's just the noi that is a little different and after this so um that's just to go back to my um question about the D fees so they're getting fees on nois and on anrs is that correct and not on an RDA or or does d get a fee for an RDA too no D doesn't get any money from rdas just from from nois and from the NRS yep and on any of the others the extension or anything like that that's all just the Loc right okay yeah they don't charge fees for for those either do 50% of the local fees go to the state did you hear the question no it was a question have question um do does 50% of the local fees go to the state or is it 50% of the EDP I the DP fees go to the town right 50% of the D Fe fee comes to the town so if we didn't have a local bylaw that fund would still be funded through the D Lo so we're getting money back from d and we're charging more money on top of that yeah and again that's just with the nois and I guess the an RADS yeah and the Beth was that also on the N rad too she uh I have to look that up I don't I don't think there's the 5050 split with the anrad for the for the state filing I didn't have to look I've only read it for the yeah no it's definitely the how the noi works is there's a fee and you split it in half and then pay half to the state and half to the town and then these are local fees on top of that so the town instead of 100 would be get a save C of 100 getting 150 based on that so then what it be advantageous so they make our fees $50 left or 50% left so that a person wouldn't have to pay that larger amount of I don't know that's what the thought since we're already getting half of what do the maybe our piece should be half of what so that we get the out does that does that Mak any sense it makes sense in my head but it may not make sense that about no me would reduce the what is and reduce what a resent right right reduce what but also what res question yeah I feel like if there's an area that where it seems these may be a little high and that we could reduce this with the notice of intent the half the feet comes back to a from yeah yep 50% should 50% of it back maybe that's an area that they could be reduced yeah I would be in supported that I think yes it's just it's a big jump and the fact that we are getting getting money back from the state um yeah no I I I I I see it I get it it's it's a big jump from what shoot got um I mean we our our our Bar law and regulations were so old that you know we've kind of been behind the times and and not charging something and um and I I feel like most of the other fees are are kind of right on they're they're they're equal to some of these towns and they just seem about accurate but the notice of intent um does seem a little bit High even to me so all right so so if we reduce those to 50 50 100 2 250 I think that makes sense yeah I agree with that yeah I just I'm looking at the other towns down below and Southampton is kind of high and but those those communities have a higher I think in medient income than shoot Creer and that's who's going to be paying these fees except for the larger development and people already complain about their taxes um so you know keeping that in mind like for the N the N especially if there's the 50% Kickback already so Beth you you need to go back to the commission right if we were G yeah I think this could come when we when we update the regulations based on the bylaw changes we can you know I'll add this to the list of things that need to be changed in the regulation and then revote it on yeah and then the select board has to has to approve these is that correct that's why before they can be charged yeah okay um what's the What's the timing um Beth do you have a sense of when you'll be looking at the regulations again probably next month um I know we won't have the bylaw back but we were just talking about that that you know we we can still go ahead with you know the updates to the regulations that we that we know would be based on the bylaw with the assumption that the Attorney General is going to approve it um so yeah probably next month okay okay so we'll add this to the list of of changes um sounds good consistent and and when you're done we'll get you back on the agenda okay thank you thanks thanks a lot bye bye bye stopping cheering and look we were back smooth Salem okay um let's let's celebrate that for a second um let's see you've done that in this and now um topic last day for select board petition for us to receive petitions and more articles from public that today yeah so today was the last day today was today is the last day but I mean you can receive them tonight but if none come in so this is um par and warrants from the public from the not internal so tonight we have received one petition yesterday and it's included in the the last sorry um and so we've done for refusal discuss topics for board meeting we've done and deep for PE update event yeah it's wondering if when if you want to try to do that at the next meeting or um or wait till May I think it would be good to do it sooner rather than later meeting yeah um and would he be doing PS and gasoline yeah okay and how long would you need for that uh probably they'll stay five minutes on say 15 20 20 yeah just in case we have question do we um is is that meeting um where we would be doing the warrant to or the annual meeting warrant or meeting okay I see your hand raing on a second okay hi um I'm I'm I can't tell if it's my internet or if the mic's having issues I'm having some trouble hearing you guys um I just wanted to make sure we we're all on the same page there are two citizen petitions okay we don't have I couldn't hear you Becky I'm sorry it must be my internet do not have the second one in the warrant I only have the one that um you emailed yesterday on the okay there's also the one I emailed to you guys before from Mata the uh non-citizen voting in in local elections one right so there's that one and the one that came in either today or yesterday honestly I can't remember at this moment it's just been all elections all the time it's been the last couple of days yeah okay that needs to be added thank you very much grace thank you I I might have to leave um I just wanted to make sure that we had those two citizen petitions noted thank you thank you thank you I'm not sure Michael just an update the executive session has been canceled for tonight and rescheduled for two weeks on the 26 it was late break good to know thank you but you're welcome to stay if you well well you guys are going over the Warren so I'm going to chime in for that too all right um let's see we are looking at the date for the pest so we have that for 20 minutes maybe at the beginning of the meeting since he's gonna right that at the beginning and then um okay now we're do are we finished that right so review the first draft of the annual town meeting warrant um it's in the fer I got to get my folder back behind the room one town meeting Warren begin on April 27 2024 um I used yellow to highlight um articles that are repetitive um I I believe the you know the assessment article will stay the same but we have not yet received it from the region but I will be careful to confir the yellow um can you just speak up a tiny bit it's even hard for me to okay [Music] article oh here we have to Reber and move something so article two is the ammer assessment um of annual event on that one um the second one is we have an employee who's also an elected official uh that is always on the warrant I'm sorry I deleted two warrants in between because that was the numbering corrected um the treasurer vote on compensating balance agreements is so that he has the authority to work with the banks to get the best um benefit package he can from for the fees they charge on block boxes or cancel checks or bounce checks um article six the town to article six article s the town allows the select board to apply for Grants um annually article 8 also annual is duplicate of five for that deleted article nine is the revolving fund annual article to ow us to um move receipts into these accounts and use them and re uh refill them article 10 I left in here because we are hopeful that we will get more clear clean water funds and we are working on that so that is brightly colored because we're hopeful that it will happen um article 11 is the budget article just put in an estimated amount kcom has not yet finalized the budget um that will happen in upcoming weeks um then we have a list of capital items we have um the work be done at the elementary school the Final Phase of a three-year project that included the gym roof replacement the as roof replacement and now this EXP area facade working trim and um and sighting as well as the full painting uh with three layers of primer and two top layers of paint um the amount of this is really $163 $163,000 um but will be supplemented by the balance of funds left over from the asphalt roof project year mark from the state we have a request for the $40,000 from the newly um configured building um committee renovation account um this request has been lower some years um 25,000 but the building committee is near is halfway through almost identifying on a priority spreadsheet uh a long list of repairs to maintain our buildings um and they will speak to that at town meeting the $122,000 requested here is for um a body camera grant that is a total of 24,000 we are it's a 50% um Grant so Christen is hopeful to you see those funs I just wrote okay can you move it no I it's on your screen so I can't y I will in I should one thank you give us one minute we the lock screen can everybody see that shake your head no yes okay yes thank you we're at number Capital item more there go up just a little bit um so completing the the body cameras town is asking for 12,000 for the balance of a $24,000 grant that Christen has applied for um the next Capital item is also for the police department it's a request of $70,000 for a new pickup truck Cruiser um that will replace one of the three um three main Cruisers and we will be going down to three Cruisers the um fourth Cruiser that has helped us through all the all the detail work it will be um optioned off the capital request from the highway department is a $4500 new storage unit request that they will put together using roofing materials and uh at the end of the main barns the longest barns that are perpendicular to the front building and they'll make a lean to between um the the containment the the container unit and then have a lean to roof from the roof of the other buildings and be able to store in the container and other equipment below the roof the next Capital item is for also for the highway department it's a $225,000 request a new generator and protein chain out of all our buildings the highway department would be the last to get uh standing generator to get upgraded to that they have used uh small diesel power generators to get through all these years um in the ice storm in 2008 um they were the last month to get online the highway department turned into have consistent power to to address their needs during a night storm or power the highway department is also asking for $112,000 to rebuild portions of gravel roads um our new highway superintendent has found that we're down to be Bones on our network of gravel roads and he has already begun laying more material over the worst um sections of our different um dirt roads and he has a plan in place um he originally just changed to the finance committee requested to be added to his Gravel Road budget but as this is a a year where there's a lot of pressure on the budget the finance committee recommended that this would be a capital item and that we will the capital program is going to be ongoing for a number of years so it'll be a d that way um so that's all the capital as Rita mentioned uh CPC did not have any request this year we they got there were a couple of projects but then yeah people didn't follow through so they did so at least there was some interest but it been stand out um so the two CPA articles here the first is the administration I'm sorry the first is taking the received funds from the state and distributing them to the different um accounts the open space and Recreation historic preservation um and community housing these are not final numbers I will need to work with the account for and typically Mato will probably send me an email that that data in it so that will be updated and then the second CPA article is the $2500 administrative feed that they get each year the MLP is actually budget I um I didn't have it in the form I could get it into the warrant um but um scale will be send sent me one I think some at some point today and I'll get that replaced with the updated yeah um so that the MLP budget I think is actually going down a little bit this year despite all their work on no it's going up thank you Su the fees are not going up though that was her Point that's the important to the public the these will not go up so that will be replaced with the FY 25 chart I'm assuming I know we have some bills of PR years um so I put the articles there they are not complete at this time and then we have um brought forward from our Police Department the shoes very solicitation bylaw which will require a majority vot um we've had a couple policies in the past but this is upgrading to a bylaw that might those were highlighted byis her version but I think it's oh clear is direct into we have the um now we reach the municipal energy storage General bylaw that is a general bylaw but has been written by the planning board and Michael Paris here is talk us through and unfortunately I'm sorry this the format the formatting on this bylaw was lost there is a copy in that sent in the Google Drive that is for m so I think we want to turn it over to Michael Michel yeah so and just FYI your mics are a little bit weird it sounds like you guys are underwater but just for feedback um have to yell at the owl so as Becky said the planning board wrote this but um we're recommending it be a general bylaw and so that means it's under your purview in terms of it doesn't need a public hearing one of the things I sort of pointed out to you all when I sent it to you is that the select board might want to consider holding a public hearing even though it's not necessary just sort of like how you do informational stuff um and if you did I'm sure you know myself or someone else from the planning board would come basically this is looking at how to deal with energy storage generally throughout the town um there's a it's for energy storage generally and then there's a subse that's particularly um focused on lithium ion batteries um but essentially it's to ensure that the public health welfare and safety of residents are protected given that it's really this is an industrial use of sorts um and there I do the word document that I sent to Becky that she can is probably in the Google Drive um breaks it out some of of this um I well I'd say that there are other towns that are doing energy storage as a general bylaw so Wendell is doing it I think the town of Wham is doing it um Donna recommended it which is important when we had conversations about how to proceed she suggested that she supported this idea of doing this a general bylaw so it's appropriate for everywhere in town it's not based on zoning um and there's no grandfather ing so as soon as it's in it sort of it's in um and it's retroactive for whatever so I don't know it's it's I forget how many pages is but do you all have questions that I could speak to that is really dense without the formatting I gotta say 10 I mean you did send it to us Michael so we has it not in this format you know where it has a the section so I assume that this is to address what the AP did in rejecting what we in our Solar bylaw when we incorporated energy storage into it that it was not accepted by the yes so I I'll be careful in answering this because I think what we want to be careful is not having this be seen as an end run to the attorney general where this this is a zoning bylaw in general bylaw clothing um so I think with the rejection of the zoning bylaw last year and and and the rationale just to remind everybody was that the AG basically said that their interpretation of Statute with in terms of the solar exemption is that it extends to all energy storage whether it's on-site as an accessory use or it's Standalone primary so that's why the H rejected it last year um as a general bylaw the solar exemption does not apply um and so being that we like wendle like weum all have legitimate concerns about energy storage we seem we thought that we would put it forth as a general bylaw um just and the analogy that Donna made was it's sort of like regulating gravel pits she sees it as the same kind of thing um so there's a lot of towns that have Gravel Pit um General bylaws so but essentially Rita I to sort of to answer your question we still think it's an issue we think the town needs to address it for Public Safety um and so presenting it as a general bylaw in B the the only path forward and has this been or bylaw like this been adopted in other communities and approved by the Attorney General no this is this is the first round found I think that so Wendell's doing theirs the beginning of April theirs is similar in terms of length and detail but the language is different um I think it's weam it's either weam or Carver theirs was really short there's was citizen petition um and both well Al the other two plus RS differentiate between one megabyte uh excuse me one megawatt systems and below and 10 megawatt systems and above and so um somewhere in the background I think it's the feds differentiate and say that one Mega megawatt systems are small capacity energy storage and so the idea there is that those are not regulated by this uh and then the important thing just based on a couple of years ago conversation all residential uses of energy storage are exempt so this is all this is only apply a non-residential um in town and Donna wanted to make sure that we wrote it so that you know it was a general bylaw and it wasn't zoning like so the terminology and the focus is a little different so J has reviewed this Michael yeah she hasn't she hasn't seen the very very last one but she saw the iteration before this and we made edits based on her comments so I think think you know what I would suggest is that she look at this of course and and look it over and make tweaks but being that she suggested we go in this direction and then she made suggestions after seeing the first really long version of it I I'd be surprised if there's too many changes that she would recommend okay like you know I I guess given the complexity of this and the 10 page that that we don't to we don't want to Hash all of this out on town meeting floor so I think the suggestion of having a um I don't know if we were planning on doing any kind of like pre-own meeting review the warrant the budget buget hearing has been set I think it's like April 20th a little later because the town meeting is is April it's very close to the meeting okay all right so we but would we do this with at the same time as the budget hearing because it's General is there any other part when you have a hearing usually get public feedback for so you have to lot yourself that's some public feedback and if you need that I don't I don't think there's yeah because it's not required right the hearing isn't required but because of the complexity the select board feels they need to make for review so yeah I support yeah that's when you had recommended I think so Michael did you um what is the data of the hearing for the zoning but April 8th at seven it might be good for us to piggy back for this article to piggy back on that would it be okay for the select board since it's a general bylaw at least piggy back the same night I think if you do it the same night and it's just very clear about you know the select board calls the hearing to order on this one you know just say you did it at 5 or 5:30 whatever that the select board would open a hearing discuss this one close your hearing we would open our hearing so that it was distinct and there's no confusion yeah yeah and that's on Monday and the one thing I was just going to say like you know there's some guidance in Statute in terms of public hearings for zoning bylaws but I don't believe there's anything so it's sort of like you're giving the chance for to the public public to see it ask questions I don't you know you're only on the hook in terms of what your common senses and desires are in terms of taking feedback and incorporating it that's that's I mean Donna can tell you that officially but there's nothing that says that you have to change it so much as you're giving chance for exchange so it's all it's all up to you that so that makes sense to just do both on the eth end yeah yeah what time is yours Michael seven seven so if we did it at six do it at six an hour yeah 10 P an hour and Michael you would you'd be doing the uh you or somebody from the planning board would do a um a brief like bulleted presentation the highlights of this Rita I would make sure that you memorized it and have you do it just kidding right okay you yeah I I I I I commit I'd be happy to do that okay thank you all right okay move on down yeah yeah now we get to the dring one 10 pages keeps GR light zoning want me to talk about this one yes this one came out of last year wasn't it 2022 oh okayi even prior that yeah we were supposed to do it last year we couldn't get our act together was too much going on with the solar stuff and I'll say the this was unanimously approved by the planning board this one not 10 no the next two I'm not sure did you want to speak to it at all Michael I I didn't hear what you said do you want to speak to it at all or um well I think so basically what we were trying to do is you know there was a request coming you know there was a citizen petition in 2022 that uh I can't remember got withdrawn or voted down but there was a vote to ask the planning board to bring a lighting bylaw to town meeting for consideration that should have been last year so we're doing it this year and what we're trying to achieve is there's I think in the purpose section here actually here I've got I've got a readable version on mine so the purpose section really speaks to the idea of regulating outdoor illumination and practices so it's that three things are trying to minimize life po pollution life trespass which means sort of going over property lines and then unnecessary glare or sky sky glow um so preserving the darkness not having lights mess with either neighbors or traffic things like that um we wanted to keep it simple there's a lot of them that are really complex I will say in the definitions one of Donna's already seen this as well um Donna asked to have a little bit more spe specificity in um what low intensity and warm temperature were which is why the Kelvin and the lumens are in there um when I was writing it I really wanted to sort of keep out the technical stuff and just sort of have it be more conceptual um I think one thing that we are pleased with is there's a section at the end which is dispute resolution and enforcement and took away my experience doing dog hearings on the select board to guide this thing because it seems like it's the same kind of vibe um and so encouraging residents to try to resolve things before themselves and then having it come to the select board if there's no resolution and giving the select board um basically the discretion to figure out what to do um you know so it could be sending the police to fact find it could be doing a range of things it could be sending people back to talk to each other again but it seems like it's this is an important thing to do we sort of struggled with what enforcement is you know police is too heavy-handed um some bigger municipalities have light Enforcement Officers which also seemed way too regulatory so starting with neighbors talking to neighbors seemed like the shsp thing to do um and so and then the last thing that's worth noting is that um we wanted to make it effective as of town meeting date so if people have lights that are out of compliance they get grandfathered in you know so just last week I was driving up lever Road and now I'm paying attention to this stuff and there was one light that was like glaring on the road and I was like oh that's not a good one but those people they get to keep their likes the way they are so the idea was and the reason I raised it we considered this n Tucket had a version where within three years of Passage everyone had to comply and we thought that you know that would have people incurring costs and people would have push back and really if you know we're trying to do have a reasonable Common Sense kind of approach to this um and so if we do at the the date of town meeting going forward no one is going to retroactively have to make changes it's just if they do like major Renovations or something like that so and it's it is it's definitely a growing thing I know northampton's been it's been in the paper with Northampton a while you know different municipalities are doing different things thank you Michael um now we're on to Citizen position but there should be two here there's there should be but we only have one on the warrant right now and great um clarified for us so this citizen petition is Forest allies for responsible solar citizens petition um and it's like uh formatted like our regular petition um it's a resolution to keep she Beed for us connected and therefore assignment resum and this one do these are um do the citizens know they're not binding has been explaining that so I I believe they should understand that I think at the last the ask is that the least one of the ask is at the very end that the select Bo keep keep these is um therefore be it resolved that the town of shsb Select board shall urge our legislators and governors to and state incentives to large scale ground mounted solar installations on connected forest with land Advanced State and ens to site large scale ground mounted and related solar installations on previously developed and or disturb lands such as rooftops ground Fields with parking lots um and support legislation that allows municipalities such as TOS Berry to regulate construction of large scale solar installations to preserve our natural landscape Safeguard our water supply and produce energy in a more climate resilience and we have one other will be add yeah and the other is regarding voting rights for noncitizens and that's what we have okay okay you go over you you skipped over the other zoning bylaw oh did I I'm sorry there was one small one in there I'm sorry that's all right it's no go go down sorry too quickly there we go no that oh that's that's the lighting one it should be it says uh zoning bylaw Amendment it's sort of a that's say lighting it's a collective one did I do two t like Michael I did the other one I did lighting okay so can you want me to share my screen can I do that yeah I don't think the other one's in there I to up when no this is here I'll share my screen it's it'll be if you g be it's amended with the wrong title the title is wrong but the document is okay it's in a different format that then you send up okay here I'll just share mine it's easier if you can see that copy and okay so in this one and the two zoning bylaws are already on the planning board web page so they're there um the lighting is new so there's no new language this one the red indicates new language so there's four different parts of the zoning bylaw that are getting amended in this one warrant article um and you can see them listed at the top the first one's changing with the use table we're creating a section for industrial uses and we're moving these four things soil mining Light Industry Wireless Communications and and wind monitoring to Industrial uses so sep separating them out from energy because energy has become a thing um but none of the requirements change so you can see under the different the four different zoning areas everything CH stays the same so so there's no change we just creating a new category on our screen could you make the document a little smaller have to go to the left oh wait a minute no it's me oh it's hold on I changed my ratio don't change it Michael I Chang my ratio okay should I keep going yeah okay so associate members is the next one so if you remember I guess it was two years ago maybe three years ago the town voted to band associate member um Powers um on the planning board and then the AG came back and said we approved some of it but not others because we interpret it differently Donna has suggested if we wanted to go forward we should take a legislative pathway you guys were involved in that um so the legislature submitted it the governor signed it into law probably like two months ago and so the law is reflected in this first line chapter one of the acts of 2024 and we have to put it in our bylaw to basically say that we're changing our bylaw to reflect what the home rule law is that we asked for so really this is coming full circle to approve what we approved three years ago but now it's in state law through home rule petition um and then the reason G is there is there was a last line which I guess I could put in and crossed out but it when we originally wrote the associate member what's currently in there now is that it prohibits associate members from participating in executive session and we we took that out because we want to have reserve the right to include them if we decide it makes sense um so it doesn't ensure that they participate but it keeps them from being prohibited so that's associate member the review criteria this is around special permits um Donna was encouraging us to do this one as well um so just with all special permits um General there's a whole there's four sets of findings that this the planning board of the zba has to consider when it looking at a special permit and then there's a whole bunch of specific findings and we basically went through and updated them given conversations and understanding of things so all this means is that these red items that we highlighted when the planning board is considering approving a special permit or denying a special permit we have to answer these questions and say Yes it meets this or it doesn't meet this and write it up as part of the findings so tho was very supportive of this one um and like this approach um and then lastly we had a special permit on Leverett road somewhere in the last year um and we had a situation where the planning it was it was a house setback way back from Lever Road and there was a um existing sort of dirt road path and we approved it by saying that I forget what it is exactly but it was like the path had to be 10 feet wide and one foot from the stone wall or something like that and then the applicant had to go to the zba to get approval and the zba said we approv it but it has to be like 11 ft it's opposed to 10t and in that process the plan board sort of came to the agreement that for things that were really di Minimus that really were Teensy weeny that we didn't want to make the person have to refile you know pay for filing fees have another public hearing and then send us the same documents that were unchanged so this process basically says if the either the planning board of the zba votes to determine that something is the Minimus and therefore it just really insignificant change that we can vote to approve it it has to be a request in writing from the applicant then we would vote but then the applicant would be able to avoid those three things additional filing fees a another public hearing and then refiling unchanged documents so um that's an addition to amendments right now what the the black part in that says is essentially if we were to make that change you have to do the whole process all over again even if it's just a one foot change or something really Teensy wey so those are the four things in this Consolidated warrant um any questions what if the planning board and Zoning Board don't agree on something well we don't have to agree it's it's not that the two boards have to agree with each other it's that like sometimes the zba does the special permit and other times the planning board does the special permit so if the planning board voted on the special permit and then either it came back to us or whatever we would have to vote to determine if it is di Minimus if we decide it is then we can proceed if if we don't get um special permits or two3 votes so you see in the second line it says voting in the same manner is required so it would require a two-thirds vote of the planning board um I'm assuming the zba is probably the same 2third if two-thirds of the members think it's the Minimus then we can proceed in in wave that stuff um and like I said it has to be in writing there's a sort of a time period um and if it doesn't change then we do everything the way it currently is which is you know we have another public hearing they have to submit everything and pay some more money okay thanks Michael you're welcome loads of fun right yeah looking for four to the eight there was nothing I don't need to sh that's the end of the war okay so we now we have time your [Music] update so we um had a fire inspection of town hall last Thursday that the fire chief attended and um has come up with uh again some concerns about this building the only place there's an active fire um detector there's two of them in the building they are both in the elevator area um and it again has been recommended that we extend our um fire alarm system throughout the building we finally have go ahead and a way to remove the two handle holes that are historic relics in the building one is attached to a sorted out system and the other will if get pulled which no one my memory has done um recently will sound the Bell it'll be a loud siren that Clos down here will go off um these things need to get removed um so I need to bring in electrition to have them officially removed they've been under discussion for a couple years and this will be the year we get it done we Len requested um uh full project scope of what is required to get done we don't have an estimate from that cost probably to be ciens have something intoit they can put for um we will ask that question citizen the citizen system in this building the fire station Highway all be replaced they're on their last list um so I think we would want to do Fe yeah an R for all build and not just start with from them so with a goal [Music] next Somey put up you find that appropriate the fact that there's nobody in the building for significant per time see what he says that might read there's a fire yeah we do have the active fire alarm in the elev a up so we often to have a firearm go off but no fires fire Happ in the C room building won't beable we we're supposed to keep the doors on the steps closed by fire c i do tend to leave them open because it we did have a yeah so that air can through pretty important and that door you'll find is often perched open to that to that airlock where the car our situated so that's some upcoming budget Buster wow um it can um there are I mean easily easily installed system for for safety and whatever Simply Save one person can set it up doesn't take long and it's fairly cheap and can monitor um and call and we might want Wireless and cellone so there's no landline and if we can tie that into the the other alarm hopefully we'll you may or may not be able to do that but if you need something temporary it's cheap enough temporary and can call until you get fund because year anyti anything in the building R um all I have just p and gasoline P we gasoline um we got results on the air on the air quality test that was done and no air quality test was right they tested the water in the stum pump and the stum pump water tested negative for B which is a very very good sign and they were waiting on the results um air that have so one out of the two is very positive and um so the the d report that Jeffrey is working on will include that data in the argument for the fact that it's localized um activity on the Vang Mike I see your hand up Circle back to two things about the Warren if I could but I'll wait to the right moment so I didn't want to interrupt um anything done with the gasoline situation or no just just a test we've been testing actively the different we retested the monitoring Wells again and then did the then he needed to get more evidence about the specific of the how it was impacting the property at 50 and and the keast testing is we've gotten most issues resolved uh with um some there was two there were five tests that were contaminated I think I told you last time those have all been retaken and letters have gone out we've gotten all letters out this um working last week and this week to Residents regarding those results um and they had been held up because of have been contaminated took about a month to be do and um then we'll schedule Jeffy come in and answer your questions that publici one thing I not they're they class action suit against manufacturers we in some um I have the information I did send I had correspondence back and forth with a lawyer that sent of um the Massachusetts effort and continue to work okay to get us online and our um police Union negotiations will start on th starting um today I had the meeting with the highway department and um Kong Kong which um was a good opportunity to for the highway super get questions answered we will be meeting on Thursday also with um the initiative about the vehicles and energy issues regarding the vehicles that they will put together a report and help try to guide us toward towards electrification of our p s as well as other so that'll be interesting this is the National Grid yes okay and who's that meeting with who's meeting um I invited um I think Michael's probably gonna be there I don't know if this word I 10 I can send it out to you if you are um it's reviewing all the information I sent them on our aut oh is the first step yeah gobe yeah yeah I just had two things I just forgot to mention about the on the warrant discussion one is since the energy storage is a general bylaw the planning board is not going to put it on our website so I I mentioned to Becky you just want to someone has to figure out where to put it and then if you want to let people who know about the hearing you know it'll be up to you all to sort of send out a town announce or something just just so you don't think we're doing it because we're not going to do it um and then the other is just the heads up that I think I emailed if not Becky the whole select board but eak a few weeks ago did this informational session about the opt-in stretch code and so so um we're meeting next Tuesday to decide if we're going to recommend to bring that to town meeting it has to have a town meeting vote if we approve it so um I don't know where people are leaning but just as a heads up that I think if if we brought it forth there's already canned language on the do website so it's not like a a 10 pager thing it's just a paragraph or something it's my guess so as soon as we vote on Tuesday I'll let Beck you know um but that's just the heads up so you're talking about for this town meeting in addition yeah what was there she can tell you all about it about it was actually a good session I thought it was a good session there wasn't very many people there actually I try that again I can't hear you okay try unmute he's mut so we can't hear you hold on let me see what I can do here we go how's that oh yeah there we go all I was gonna say it wasn't a large attendance like Melissa said but it was a good conversation and the representatives from do I think did a good job of explaining things so and it's recorded it's on the it's on eak website okay great okay do you want a motion to adjourn I'll take a motion to I move that we um adjourn this board meeting okay okay all in favor thank you thanks thank you e e e for